The General Authority for Radio and Television is the governmental body responsible for radio and television broadcasting in Syria. It is divided into two parts:
Radio Radio broadcasting began in the
First Syrian Republic upon its independence on 17 April 1946 on
shortwave. As early as 1942, Radio Damas, a counterpart to Radio Levant in
Beirut, Lebanon existed in the French
League of Nations mandate. Nationwide radio programs include: •
Radio Damascus (; since 1947) •
Sawt Al-Shabab FM (; since 2002) – suspended •
Radio Souryana (; since 2015) – suspended Former radio station: •
Sawt Al-Shab () (1979–2017) Regional radio programs are (from north to south): • Radio Sanabel FM, in
Al-Hasakah • Radio Aleppo FM, in
Aleppo • Radio Amwaj FM, in
Latakia • Radio Tartus, in
Tartus • Radio Zenobia, in
Homs • Radio al-Karma, in
Sweida The shortwave international broadcaster Radio Damascus has existed from 1947 until 2013. According to the frequency announcements in the program, both FM (VHF) and AM (medium wave) are broadcast.
Television The
television station is based in
Damascus,
Syria since July 1960. The channel airs programmes in Arabic and English. Its first channel,
Channel 1, was broadcasting in black and white until 1978. A
second channel was added in 1985 (discontinued in 2012 due to the civil war) and in 1996, the satellite service
Syria TV began broadcasting. On 5 September 2012, Syrian Television channel broadcasts were broken off on
Arabsat and
Nilesat, including Syria TV. Syria TV and
Syrian Drama TV broadcasts were stopped on
Hot Bird on 22 October 2012. The
digital television switchover (DVB-T) in Syria has been restarted since mid-2018, in the provinces of Damascus,
Daraa, As Suwayda,
Rif Dimashq, Tartus, Latakia,
Quneitra and Hama, however there is still no date for an analog switch off. GART national and satellite television channels: •
Al-Souriya TV (since 1995), also known as Syria TV, distributed through
digital terrestrial television (DTT) and
satellite television (
Nilesat,
Es'hailSat) •
Syrian News Channel, also known as Al-Ikhbariyah Syria (since 2010), distributed through digital terrestrial television (DTT) and satellite television (Nilesat, Es'hailSat) ; Suspended broadcast since December 2024 • Syrian Local Channel (since 2022), distributed through DTT •
Noor Al-Sham (religious channel; since 2011) •
Syrian Drama TV (since 2009) •
Syrian Education TV (since 2008) •
Drama 24 •
Sports TV •
Sakaker Kids TV •
Syriana TV Radio and TV •
Ugarit TV (since 2014) – a regional channel from
Latakia; Latakia Radio and Television Center was established in 1987 for the hosting of the
1987 Mediterranean Games Former channels include
Syrian Medical TV and
Talaqie TV which both closed in 2016; terrestrial channels
Channel 2 and
Channel 1 (now Syrian Local Channel) closed down in 2012. ==See also==